They had all the gift of enjoying life's texture as it comes; they
were all born optimists. The name of liberty was honoured in that
family, its spirit also, but within stringent limits; and some of
the foreign friends of Mrs. Jenkin were, as I have said, men
distinguished on the Liberal side. Like Wordsworth, they beheld
France standing on the top of golden hours
And human nature seeming born again.
At once, by temper and belief, they were formed to find their
element in such a decent and whiggish convulsion, spectacular in
its course, moderate in its purpose. For them,
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven.
And I cannot but smile when I think that (again like Wordsworth)
they should have so specially disliked the consequence.
It came upon them by surprise. Liberal friends of the precise
right shade of colour had assured them, in Mrs. Turner's drawing-
room, that all was for the best; and they rose on January 23
without fear.
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